Has he always been one to say what he believes? I know he was very willing to rip players he inherited from Dixon in the media. I don't think that's the same thing as "telling it how it is." He shows a lack of reflection and self awareness with quotes like this: “We’ve had to do some unconventional recruiting because of the sheer numbers of what we’ve been forced to do.” This dude gutted his own roster and was unable to retain his best returning player, and is still deflecting. He wasn't forced to recruit 11 players - that was his choice for constructing his roster for this year.
Another example, "I don’t know where our talent level will rank in this unbelievably tough conference, but I’ve got a feeling that our effort level and our toughness level will be pretty good." Sounds like another excuse-in-the-making - my conference is hard so it's not my fault that my team stinks.
I hope this team exceeds expectations, but if it's as bad as most think it will be I will be very interested to follow Stallings' comments in to the media and compare them to the way he talked about Artis and Young last year.
EDIT: At the end of the video he does take credit for last year's debacle - it just didn't make it into Chris's article. Mea culpa, credit to Stallings for accepting responsibility.
